Time‘s Jay Newton-Small reports on presidential aspirant Fred Thompson’s work in Iowa. Though he’s trailing behind Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee, Thompson is gaining some traction by offering himself up as the true conservative in the race:
Simon's simple Mormon Q&A
As the Divine Ms. M.Z. noted the other day (and Mark did, as well), many mainstream reporters who are covering the controversies about Mormonism seem to accept, as fact, that disagreements between traditional Christians and Mormon Christians are rooted in misunderstandings or bigotry.
The inscrutable Burke
We’ve seen many stories over the years of women proclaiming that they are Roman Catholic priests. In many of these articles, reporters forget to mention that the priests are in no way recognized by the Roman Catholic Church. Tim Townsend has been a notable exception to this rule, and he had a nice follow-up story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch last week.
Enemies of Tiny Tim?
Baptist Press ran an intriguing story this week. It was one of those laugh-to-keep-from-crying stories from the sort-of-secular public square.
Give me that old-timer religion news
Leading off a package of religion stories in the Lansing State Journal this morning is a solid feature on the effect the growing elderly population is having on religious communities.
Teaching kids the s-word
USA Today religion reporter Cathy Lynn Grossman had an excellent article about Christian children’s book offerings. Apparently Christmas is peak season for sales of children’s Bible storybooks. Which makes sense. I’m buying this one, among others, for my nieces and nephews.
Connect the Rupert Murdoch dots
Early this month, I put up a major religion-news post, while offering no commentary about it whatsoever.
Why kill the death penalty?
For four decades, opponents of the death penalty have waited for the moment when a state would abolish the practice.
A priest tells his own hideous story
My local newspaper, The Indianapolis Star, rightly leads this morning’s newspaper with the banner headline “EX-PRIEST ADMITS ABUSING BOYS.” The article describes a situation that is all too familiar to newspaper reporters covering local Catholic communities.
